Practicalmadness

Almost the only film I remember fondly from my Sound for Film class: The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, is coming soon to DVD from the fabulous people at Criterion. It came up as an example of Michel Chion's concept of the "acousmetre," who is a character that exists only as sound and thus has special powers, but loses them once he/she is seen. It's an amazingly freaky film, as super-criminal (and Hitler stand-in) Dr. Mabuse's writings take on a life of their own, setting in motion a plot to destroy the world or summot.

Fritz Lang released it in 1933 -- the same year Hitler came to power -- and the rise of Nazism obviously informed the story. A madman whose ideas set in motion a faceless conspiracy of destruction? Hmm, let me think of who that reminds me of. It was considered a threat to the regime and banned by Goebbels; Lang defected to the U.S. shortly thereafter, making (among many other fabulous films) the proto-noir Scarlet Street, another favorite from the 30s.

And has anyone else noticed a huge trend toward really striking, high-design covers at Criterion this year? Criterion's discs have always looked better than other publishers', but contrast the relatively pedestrian covers for Seven Samurai and Seventh Seal with this fabulous halftoned picture for Mabuse, or the use of line art, design and typography on new releases like Ikiru and The Rules of the Game. They're really cool.